Who Owns Maps on the iPhone?

I was alerted yesterday by Anthony Avolio that Google is putting sponsored links on Maps on the iPhone. Here’s an example for “Hotels, Boston”:

They’re also in the list view:

I suppose it was a matter of time before Google did this to mirror the PC experience as it has been doing elsewhere in mobile (with syncing searches and starring locations).

But the question of who “owns” maps on the iPhone arises in my mind. Apple and Google worked closely together to develop the experience but Google’s inclusion of ads suggests that Google believes it owns the iPhone’s map. However Apple may not be entirely pleased with this change. It’s not clear to me. I haven’t spoken to anyone at either company. Apple might be indifferent to the addition of the ads; they’re fairly unobtrusive.

But what do you think? Do you think this will upset Apple? Do you think that Apple will inevitably bounce Google (as many do) from its central mapping role on the device?

That would be strange and somewhat contrary to apple’s culture in in my view (unless the analogy is the app store) but maybe; why would apple want to share in click revenue — unless that was a requirement: if there are any ads that appear on maps, we get X% as a matter of course.

[…] Jan 8, 2010 at 10:26am ET by Greg Sterling A number of articles appeared that speculate about or discuss ads on Google Maps (PC and mobile) now and in the future. Google Maps is one of Google’s most successful and valuable properties — arguably even more so in mobile — and the company is going to be both careful and thoughtful about how it expands ads on Maps. Ads already exist on Google Maps today online and in mobile. […]